I see, thanks for doing this. I have been really interested in self-vaccination since the original RADVAC whitepaper came out, but I never really pulled the trigger on any method due to a lack of expertise in the area and (expected) expressions of concern from some people close to me.
A few more Q’s:
It does seem like doing the purification step may require or at least benefit from some level of lab experience, which I unfortunately don’t have. How important do you think the purification step is for the safety of the final product (as taken IM)? If it really shouldn’t be skipped, I may be better off with RADVAC.
I notice that a lot of RBD are sold with “(His-Tag)” at the back. Based on some cursory reading, it seems that this is for the purposes of making purification easier. But does this tag have to be removed to be used in a vaccine? Some comments on ResearchGate suggest the answer is no but I’m really not sure.
Secondly since it does seem like people who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, a vaccine, or even SARS-CoV-1 mount a stronger response when later given another vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, do you think that it might be possible that dosing the DIY one again (but say, with an Omicron RBD) after getting the commercial vaccines could demonstrate the efficacy of the DIY one if the titer from a commercial antibody test increases after injecting it?
Purification isn’t necessary if you buy already purified protein; in my case it was just cheaper to get it in bulk and filter it myself.
Removing the his-tag reduces the low-ish risk of it interfering with the immune response, but not doing so doesn’t strike me as dangerous, it’s just a dangling chain of histidine after all (and biology doesn’t quite work like Unsong, luckily).
As for using peptide vaccines as a booster, I’m mildly optimistic given the evidence. Boosting vector vaccines with mRNA seems stronger than vice-versa, but it’s still better than only having n-1 vaccines. I could see the same being true for peptide vaccines.
FWIW, my first official and fourth overall vaccination pretty much knocked me out for two days, so perhaps my experiment wasn’t entirely without effect.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. When you say purified protein, what’s the standard for “pure enough”? I see some listings that say things like “>95% by SDS-PAGE”.
I see, thanks for doing this. I have been really interested in self-vaccination since the original RADVAC whitepaper came out, but I never really pulled the trigger on any method due to a lack of expertise in the area and (expected) expressions of concern from some people close to me.
A few more Q’s:
It does seem like doing the purification step may require or at least benefit from some level of lab experience, which I unfortunately don’t have. How important do you think the purification step is for the safety of the final product (as taken IM)? If it really shouldn’t be skipped, I may be better off with RADVAC.
I notice that a lot of RBD are sold with “(His-Tag)” at the back. Based on some cursory reading, it seems that this is for the purposes of making purification easier. But does this tag have to be removed to be used in a vaccine? Some comments on ResearchGate suggest the answer is no but I’m really not sure.
Secondly since it does seem like people who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, a vaccine, or even SARS-CoV-1 mount a stronger response when later given another vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, do you think that it might be possible that dosing the DIY one again (but say, with an Omicron RBD) after getting the commercial vaccines could demonstrate the efficacy of the DIY one if the titer from a commercial antibody test increases after injecting it?
Purification isn’t necessary if you buy already purified protein; in my case it was just cheaper to get it in bulk and filter it myself.
Removing the his-tag reduces the low-ish risk of it interfering with the immune response, but not doing so doesn’t strike me as dangerous, it’s just a dangling chain of histidine after all (and biology doesn’t quite work like Unsong, luckily).
As for using peptide vaccines as a booster, I’m mildly optimistic given the evidence. Boosting vector vaccines with mRNA seems stronger than vice-versa, but it’s still better than only having n-1 vaccines. I could see the same being true for peptide vaccines.
FWIW, my first official and fourth overall vaccination pretty much knocked me out for two days, so perhaps my experiment wasn’t entirely without effect.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. When you say purified protein, what’s the standard for “pure enough”? I see some listings that say things like “>95% by SDS-PAGE”.